When I opened my hand, it just sat there for several minutes, even when I tried to encourage it to leave. Then, I felt prompted to set the bird down in a large wood pile near the house. I then went inside to get some bread to see if I could get it to eat, but when I returned to place the food near it, it flew a few feet to a new location. Well, as you may have figured out by now, within about 5 more minutes, the bird flew away, apparently healed from whatever was wrong.

The following Monday at work, I walked into one of the out buildings on my current job site, and found a bird trapped inside, and it was flying into the windows trying to escape. Remembering the earlier occurrence, though this bird was not yet seriously hurt, I began walking over to it while it perched on a window sash (sorry, no pictures of this, as I didn't have my camera with me). Speaking softly to it, I reached my hands around it and took it outside. When I opened my hands, it also flew away.

As if this were not enough, the following weekend, BJ and I came home one evening to find a stray dog wandering around the retreat center where we live. After coaxing it to let us catch it, we found a phone number and name on its collar, and called to see if they might be looking for this rather thin and dirty-looking animal. Much to BJ's surprise, when we took the dog back to the owner, it turned out to be a property about two miles from our home that BJ had passed by on multiple occasions, and, because the farm had sheep (BJ really likes sheep), she had hoped to meet these people someday and be able to spend some time with the sheep.

Well, not only did God grant her this desire through their dog just "happening" to wander onto our property 2 miles from their farm, but they invited us to come back to see the two little lambs that were born just a few days later, and we actually got to hold them!!

        

God is truly awesome!!!